Washington Avenue Flyover: Blessing or a Curse

From our fellow cyclists at the Albany Bicycle Coalition, Lorenz Worden writes, “The Washington Ave. Flyover and Related work is complete. Two cyclists gave their opposing thoughts on the results. What are yours?

Bike in traffic

From a Daily Western Ave. Extension Commuter – I am VERY deeply concerned. I suspect it is going to force me to change my route entirely to avoid it. I go west on Washington. If I take the flyover, I have cars and garbage trucks coming onto Washington westbound at 55 mph on my right on the on-ramp from Fuller while I am stuck between them and the other traffic doing 55 mph on my left. This is almost certain death. If I get off Washington before the flyover and go down the ramp, around the circle, and back up the ramp, I have to assert my right-of-way over the commuters coming south on Fuller Rd. and into the circle while I’m there. This also strikes me as a death-defying experience. I cannot say for sure because I have not tried it yet, but I expect this whole thing is going to be a HUGE disaster for my commute. I think the design is terrible for cyclists and sets us back instead of moving us forward. It makes one more place no normal cyclist will ever dare go.

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From an Experienced Road Cyclist – I took a ride . . . through the university and along Washington Ave. Extension. I do like the new configuration at Fuller Road. It was easy to do the traffic circle and then the flyover. The condition of the road surface at that intersection is much improved, needless to say. And I do like traffic circles. I think they are fun and despite what others think, I say safer. Traffic certainly does need to slow down in order to negotiate and this seems to give equal advantage to the cyclist. [The result] could be cumulative as numbers of cyclists increase.”